Saturday, May 2, 2009

Listen Up, Class!

Last night I continued the Basketweave Marathon background around Holi, my "Tudor" dog pet guardian angel. It always seems to take forever but this is 18 count. If I stitch an inch or an inch and a half of background all around the perimeter of this angel, I am stitching probably 600,000 tent stitches! WHEW.

Of course my math might not be correct.

I might be stitching more....

[Jane feels faint.]

In other pet guardian angels news, Beth reports from IL that her pet guardian angel (she is doing the Medieval Cat for the ANG Auction) is demanding pearls. What's next? A fur coat? A Cadillac?

I also have chosen thread for my final angel, the Georgian Rabbit. But I have to finish Holi first. Speaking of which, remember how I planned to leave some of the areas at Holi's hem blank so I could put gold beads there? It looks to me that the couched green hem is so raised up away from the tent stitches in the background that any gold beads under the couched area among the tent stitches are going to disappear. (I'm using Petites from Mill Hill, not the larger gold beads.) So the plan now is to put gold beads on top of the hem couching. My lesson for you today is to always be flexible. Any plan you make or idea you come up with may not work. You can't always tell, so be ready to come up with an even more fabulous plan if the first one does not work.

Speaking of lessons, I have lots of class news for you today. The Shining Needle Society is offering a class on Japanese temari balls! Read all about it on Barbara Suess' temari website.
http://www.japanesetemari.com/classes/morningglory/MorningGloryClass.html

Needle Works in Austin, TX has announced three new classes--Margaret Bendig is doing a sampler of NP stitches for them, Tony Minieri has a great new teapot based on house in the Glen Elleyn suburbs of Chicago, and Kathy Kulesza is going to teach the Christmas Packages design from Associated Talents. The first two projects are pictured at the link below. To see Kathy's class, click on the In Store Classes link in the header next to the big flower.
https://www.theneedleworks.com/classes_teachers.html

Finally, Amy Bunger lists new classes for her shop, shows off customer projects including a fabulous Melissa Shirley circus horse (the Canvas of the Day is the Circus Tiger from the same series), shows you how to open a skein of Gloriana silk perle without tangles or tears, and gives you a preview of Tony Minieri's "In the Footsteps of the Pharoahs" design which will be taught in her store this fall. Plus more.
http://www.amybunger.com/current_enewsletters.html

Lots to learn, lots to stitch. Guess we'd all better get busy!

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow